On Monday, May 19, Bishop Tylka will greet Bishop Hicks of the Joliet Diocese in St. Patrick Church (Seneca) at 2 p.m. Bishop Hicks will bring the Monstrance from the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage which was handed off to the Joliet Diocese on May 18 from the Archdiocese of Indianapolis where it began.

Bishop Tylka will open with an opening prayer and offer words of welcome to the pilgrims and the faithful that will gather in the church that afternoon. A reading, psalm and prayers of the faithful will be recited followed by Benediction. The Bishop and pilgrims will then exit to vehicles to move on to Utica where a procession and prayers will be offered at 3:30 p.m. followed by adoration. The procession will move to the Pere Marquette Memorial (weather permitting).

St. Mary (Utica) is the site of the first Mass to be held in the Diocese. On Holy Thursday, April 11, 1675, Francis Jacques Marquette offered the first parochial Mass in Utica in the presence of 5,000 Native Americans. Father Marquette and his companion Louis Joliet took possession of this land in the name of Jesus Christ and founded the Mission of the Immaculate Conception. That mission eventually became the church of Saint Mary.

The Eucharistic pilgrims will then travel to LaSalle where Mass will be offered at St. Hyacinth at 5:30 p.m. with a prelude beginning at 5 p.m.  At 6:30 p.m. a procession will take place from St. Hyacinth Church to Queen of the Holy Rosary Shrine (LaSalle).

Tuesday, May 20 has been coined Fulton Sheen Day for the pilgrims. Their day will begin with a prayer service at St. Mary Church (El Paso) which is the birthplace of Venerable Fulton Sheen. Following the prayer service, the group will make their way to St. Patrick of Merna (Bloomington) where a Mass of Thanksgiving will be offered at 10 a.m. A procession will begin at noon at the McGraw Park and will continue to Central Catholic High School. The procession will end at the stadium where the Blessed Sacrament will be placed on the Altar for Adoration and Benediction.

Continuing down the road to Morton, the pilgrims will stop at Blessed Sacrament around 2:30 p.m.  for prayer and adoration. Their final destination on Tuesday will be the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception.  A procession will be held from downtown Sacred Heart (Peoria) to the Cathedral beginning at 6:30 p.m. (Please park in the Cathedral lot where shuttles will transport you to Sacred Heart Church). Exposition, a reflection by Msgr. Jason Gray, Director of the Archbishop Fulton Sheen Foundation, Music by Dr. and Tracey Prescott and the Chesterton Academy, Litany and Benediction will close the day.

The pilgrims will have their final day in the Diocese of Peoria beginning with a Mass of Thanksgiving at Corpus Christi (Galesburg). Bishop Tylka will bring the Monstrance from Peoria to Galesburg via helicopter provided by OSF Healthcare.

Prayers and Benediction will be offered at Immaculate Conception (Monmouth) at 12 p.m. with the Bishop and pilgrims taking their leave for Gulfport where a boat awaits them to travel to Burlington, Iowa. Bishop Tylka will hand over the Monstrance to the Bishop Walsh of the Diocese of Davenport in Burlington.

Please check out all the details on our website: www.cdop150.org/eucharist